Rakes' body was found in wooded area on Mill Street. He had no wallet or identification at the time, and police said there were no obvious signs of trauma.

A toxicology test will be conducted.

Police are searching for a 1998 white Dodge caravan that is registered to Rakes in connection with the case.

Rakes, 59, has long claimed that Bulger and his associate Kevin Weeks forced him to sell his South Boston liquor store to the Winter Hill Gang.

Rakes said the pair threatened him in 1984 with a loaded gun and gave him $67,000 for the store.

During testimony last week, Weeks said several times that he hated Rakes and didn't trust him. Rakes was infuriated by Weeks' testimony, saying his store was never for sale.

Rakes was a vocal critic of Bulger leading up to the trial, saying in April when Bulger appeared in court for the first time in about two years that he began hyperventilating when he first saw the defendant. Rakes said Bulger wouldn't look his way.

"The day I see him in a box, not breathing, will be better," Rakes told The Associated Press that day.

Rakes was eager to get on the witness stand, according to Tommy Donahue, son of alleged Bulger victim Michael Donahue. But prosecutors told the judge Tuesday who their remaining witnesses would be and Rakes wasn't among them.

"He said he wanted to get up there and tell his side of the story," Donahue said Thursday.

Rakes was upset when he left the courthouse Tuesday, said Steven Davis, the brother of alleged Bulger victim Debra Davis. But Davis said he wasn't sure why.

Davis said he had repeatedly called Rakes, a friend of his, since Tuesday but had not heard back.

Rakes' brother, Joseph Rakes, was seen in NewsCenter 5 photographer Stanley Forman's Pulitzer Prize-winning image charging at an African-American man on Boston's City Hall with the sharp end of the American flag.

The photo was taken on April 5, 1976, during a protest against court-ordered busing.

Bulger, 83, is accused of participating in 19 killings during the 1970s and '80s.

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzkokhar Tsarnaev rested their case in his federal death penalty trial Tuesday after presenting a brief case aimed at showing his late older brother was the mastermind of the 2013 terror attack.